Tuesday, September 25, 2018


Little hearts and a feisty Teacher

Self determined learning is the phrase Dr.Stewart Hase uses to define heutagogy. He is the founder of ‘heutagogy’. The students are the self teachers and the class room teacher is only a facilitator and guide in this process of learning. September 26th  is celebrated as “World’s Heutogogy Day”. Chris Kenyon and Dr. Stewart Hase  found out this method as they were working on another project of learning . The objective of this method of learning is that it will make a student a complete human. Once this method of learning is implemented in the elementary level the pupil will start his process of life long journey of learning. The method of learning is determined in the child’s life.  He will learn everything in his life with this method. Dr. Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon, brought out this concept in 2000.  Further developing it Dr. Stewart Hase has done much more work and now this method stands workable and had yielded good results.
Now we will talk about a self determined teacher Ms Vijayabhanu Kote who is working in a government school in Payakaraopeta , who has adopted this method in her class. As an academician and also an individual with social responsibility she contributes different articles to the Government journals Yojana, and also writes Biology lessons for Tenth class students in Eenadu and English lessons to KASTURI magazine (by the Govt of AP). Besides this she is also a creative writer and poet in English and Telugu. She wrote stories in Telugu which are published in reputed magazines like Prasthaanam and Swathi weekly.
  First she experimented with heutagogy with the fifth class children and now she is doing it confidently with first class students too.
Little brains are all different in their own way. There is also emotion involved in learning. Learning is both subjective and objective. Learning is defined as the change that is brought out in a mind with some experience. So heutagogy is such a method which makes the child to use his brain and interact. This method also helps the child to evaluate his own learning.
She has designed modules of Heutagogy.  As a teacher in the Government school it is really an adventurous decision for Ms.Bhanu Kote , but as she is a self determined teacher , she has successfully implemented in her class to students of fifth class. In a small town Payakaraopeta , the students are from very poor and disturbed  families. To put them all to such learning process is a herculean task. And this teacher had taken the total responsibility on her shoulders and done it. Her colleagues and the education board all are surprised for the results she brought out. All the process of learning of her students’ day to day learning is recorded by the students themselves in their own words and pictures. This dedicated teacher with the financial help of her friends published the book with the title “Lethaakaasalu” which means Tender Skies(each kid a sky on their own)
As she succeeded in her effort with her first experiment, all the teachers of other schools started inquiring about this concept. She taught them and also started writing on this subject to the magazine “Naveena Vidya”. She gives her self assessment as a successful person implementing this method.
 A dedicated and devoted teacher Ms Vijayabhanu Kote not only takes teaching as her profession or livelihood, but it as the mission of her life. With the help of her friends , Chairman Zillaparishad , her colleagues and Head Master and mentor Mr. Devineni Madhusudhana Rao , the man who adopted her school , she does a lot to the development of the school. Wherever she goes there’s a lot of progress in that school by all means. She takes up the responsibility of constructing boundary walls, and pooling up computers, furniture, and sports material and a lot more to the school in which she works. She had been working in the MPPSPH WADA school and now she is working in the MPUP KH WADA schools in Payakaraopeta. She says that this method of learning makes a student to prosper throughout his lifelong learning process and they will turn into a self fulfilled individual. They become social conscious and realize their responsibility as good citizens. Her students conduct many awareness and social programs too. Her achievements won her great applause that she was invited to present a paper on her experiments in heutagogy to Finland. She successfully presented her paper “Heutogogy for primary school children and triangle concept” in the Global symposium conducted by council for creative education, Finland , in Tampere University in November 2017. More than sixty countries attended this symposium from all over the world. The same paper was simultaneously selected for TECH Global symposium and she presented her paper in NOVOTEL, Vizag in December 2017.  Presently Ms Vijayabhanu is working with Dr. Stewart Hase and his team in preparing the hand book for teachers on Heutagogy. She says it’s a grand privilege to work with the founder of ‘gogy’.
  All her dreams are about the children and their progress. She not only dreams but makes them true and with her nearly almost two decades of service outstands as a devoted teacher and a loving human being the whole town cherishes her being with them and with pride they own her. How nice it would be if at least few of our teachers work with such dedication and then our schools would be wonderlands of learning.
………………………………………………………………….jagaddhatri ,                                                                        Bilingual writer, translator, critic and columnist . dhaathri.dhaathri9@gmail.com